(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a protective tape separation method and a protective tape separation apparatus for joining a separation tape, which has an adhesive force stronger than that of a protective tape joined to a surface of a semiconductor wafer, to the protective tape and separating the separation tape, thereby separating the protective tape integrally with the separation tape.
(2) Description of the Related Art
A semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, simply referred to as “wafer”) is thinned by processing by using a mechanical method such as grinding or polishing, or a chemical method using etching. At the time of processing the wafer by using any of the methods, a protective tape is joined to a surface of the wafer to protect the surface on which a wiring pattern is formed. The wafer to which the protective tape is joined and which is grinded is adhered and held from a back side thereof to a ring frame by way of a dicing tape. The protective tape is then separated from the surface of the wafer held by the ring frame.
A method for joining the separation tape to the surface of the protective tape by way of a roller-shaped joining member, and separating the separation tape to be separated and removed and then wound integrally with the protective tape from the surface of the wafer is known (see e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 05-63077) as a method for separating the protective tape.
The above-mentioned conventional protective tape separation method, however, has the following problems.
In recent years, with rapid progress in applications, reduction in thickness of a wafer is in demand and a wafer is thinned to 150 μm or less to enable high density packaging. Thus, the wafer may be damaged by the pressing force of the joining member when joining the separation tape to the surface of the protective tape by way of the roller-shaped joining member.